DIME School to Ready Music Entrepreneurs for The Digital Age

The Internet has been disrupting the modern music industry since the early days of Napster, iTunes, and YouTube. For music entrepreneurs, it takes a whole new approach to business to succeed in the digital age.

Kevin Nixon, president of DIME announced the arrival of their new music school to Detroit this Fall, with special classes in business and entrepreneurship to help prepare musicians for this industry. Kevin himself started play and aiming to launch his music career in the rural parts of the UK.

“I started very young. I’m from a musical family. I have four uncles who are all jazz musicians,” said Kevin. “I got my first record deal. It went disastrously badly. Then I got another at 19 and that went equally badly. I managed to build up my career over a number of years.”

Between his failures and eventually his hits, he opened up a label and became a manager. He had managed one band that sold 2 million on their debut album. A few years later he sold the label and joined up with his two partners to enter music education.

Kevin had seen plenty of music talent that didn’t go very far due to their location and access to business mentorship or expertise. He wanted to change this.

“It’s very hard for kids when they are (from yorkshire). It’s a bit like coming from Saginaw,” said Kevin. “We know it’s hard for those who have talent but don’t understand the music business. We wanted to put something together for kids who could learn about the industry from a vocational point of view and do it in a cool way. We’d like to make the academic case for rock and roll.”

Founded in 2001 in England they had started with four cities and 2,000 dedicated music students. They launched and partnered with the best universities they could find. Opening in Downtown Detroit the DIME school is open for applications, recruiting both staff and students. DIME expects to enroll 150 students for its 2014-2015 school year.

They also hope to unite a music industry that already exists in places like Dearborn, Ferndale, and Detroit.

“With all of the negative media on Detroit, we couldn’t believe the positive reaction and the talent here,” said Kevin. “We hope we can help centralize the music community. Everyone should know they can become part of it.”

A Case for the Digital Age
With classes in songwriting, business, and more DIME hopes to prepare students for the next generation of the music industry. They see themselves as a training program for those at the top of the industry.

“If you’re going to be an entrepreneur you’ve got to have to learn how to monetize, sustain, and increase that,” said Kevin.

From our chat, Kevin suggested music entrepreneurs understand and know the different income streams one can make off of music, and how to manage, brand, and sell your music.

Courses are offered in music management and entrepreneurship to help all of those start their own business in the music industry. Learn more about their first round of classes in Detroit at www.dime-detroit.com.